Monday, March 7, 2011

Myakka

Had the opportunity to go landscape painting in Myakka last Friday with George Pratt's class--and this is my turnout. This was my first time landscape painting (officially) and I am somewhat satisfied with the results. I approached this mostly alla prima with a palette knife, but would spend a lot of time scraping off or remixing into the canvas as well. I'm working with oil on 9x12' board and had toned the panel with acrylic burnt sienna the night before.

I was given a great walkthrough from Sishir Bommakanti while working on this--so much credit goes to him, I most likely would have been tripped up by basic obstacles and the painting ultimately failed without his help. I was amazed at how little detail it took for it to still read as a landscape and feel I have a much better grasp on color mixing and theory. (mixing in complements to get darker shades as well as using a limited palette). The palette knife is an extremely versatile tool when used on board--and added texture creates an entirely new dimension beyond color and shape. In the future I'd like to work on defining shapes more, as well as experimenting with different surfaces (linen? glass? I've loathed canvas board so far--but maybe I just need to change up my technique).

As for the two images themselves, the first is a picture taken on-site with my phone after finishing--which then seconds later ended up in the dirt. The second I scanned in a few days later after trying to smooth over some of the scratches in the lake. but the yellow and yellow/orange dried weird. Oh well. Looking forward to going plein air painting with Brooke Olivares and Matteo Caloiaro over break!